The first ever face to face talk between the Taliban and their archrival Ahmad Massoud was a non-starter. According to close confidants of Massoud, the Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Mutaqqi rejected demands by the National Resistance Front (NRF) by saying that the Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani who is also the chief of Haqqani Network has already rejected these demands of decentralising the power and inclusive government.

According to the spokesperson of Ahmad Massoud led Afghan National Resistance Front, Sebghatullah Ahmadi, the Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Mutaqqi made this clear to Massoud during their talks that, “Haqqani Network has the upper hand and that the Haqqani Network is not in favour of meeting these demands. Hence, they cannot accept these demands till they marginalise the Haqqani Network in future,” Sebghatullah Ahmadi told BBC Persian.

He said in his interview to the channel that the Taliban minister admitted that there were internal differences in the Taliban regime on several issues but was hopeful “it will be solved in the future.”

Video: NRF spokesperson Sebghatullah Ahmadi told BBC Persian the Taliban Minister angrily left the talks & rejected the demands of Massoud of a decentralised government.

دیدار احمد مسعود و اسماعیل‌خان با وزیر خارجه دولت طالبان؛ آغاز مذاکرات رسمی طالبان با رهبران مخالف

آیا جبهه مقاومت ملی افغانستان به دنبال مقاومت مسلحانه است یا مذاکرات سیاسی؟
گفتگو با صبغت‌الله احمدی، سخنگوی جبهه مقاومت ملی افغانستان
بخش دوم pic.twitter.com/43aAFFIGpv

— BBC NEWS فارسی (@bbcpersian) January 10, 2022

(In a series of tweets, Natiq Malikzada, an Afghan journalist close to the NRF translated the main points of the interview from Persian to english.

THREADS:
Sibghatullah Ahmadi spokesman for the #NRF regarding talks with the Taliban in Tehran:

According to Mr. @Sibghat_Ah, the talks lasted 3 days, and on the third day the Taliban angrily left the talks & rejected the demands of the #NRF for a decentralized govt with…
1/5

— Natiq Malikzada | ناطق ملکزاده (@natiqmalikzada) January 10, 2022

According to Sebghatullah Ahmadi, Ahmad Massoud told Mutaqqi that “the issues of women's rights, children's rights, establishing a lawful govt through a fair election, eliminating tyranny, freedom of expression and changing the system to de-centralized, are our red lines and we will never cross these red lines.”

According to the NRF spokesperson, the reason for taking part in these talks was to test Taliban's false claims for peace.

"Many countries in the region believed that the Taliban had changed. These talks were a test and now it has been proven that the Taliban have not changed and that their false claims that "we want peace" have been nothing but a lie,” he told BBC.

Interestingly, the confirmation about the meeting came first from the Taliban when on Monday the chief spokesperson of the group, Zabiullah Mujahid said in a Twitter post that, “Ismail Khan and Ahmad Massoud met with a delegation from the Islamic Emirate in Tehran. We assured all of them that they can come back to live freely and safely in Afghanistan. We (the Taliban) don’t intend to cause any security or other problems for anyone.”

The meeting took place in Tehran, where the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had invited the Taliban Minister to hold talks with the Panjshir leader & NRF supremo Massoud and “Lion of Herat” Ismail Khan. According to the NRF, the meetings were held in three sessions.

The development gains significance as Iran is actively trying to normalise the degrading situation in Afghanistan as it is “close” to the Taliban and leaders of the anti -Taliban front. After the Taliban’s capture of Power in Afghanistan in August last year, many of anti-Taliban leaders are in Iran.

Also Read: Taliban reaches out to rival Ismail Khan–appoints his nephew as ambassador to Iran